Fox showed 7 minutes of the next 'Planet of the Apes' movie at Comic Con and fans loved it

New York Comic Con fans were in for a treat Thursday night. Fox
held a special event at the Regal theater in Times Square to show
off the first footage from next July's "War for the Planet
of the Apes."

INSIDER was on hand, along with a lot of other press, to witness
seven minutes of footage from the upcoming film along with a
behind-the-scenes look at the sequel.

Director Matt Reeves, producer Dylan Clark, and actor and
motion-capture genius Andy Serkis ("The Lord of the Rings")
werepresent to showcase the
footage and for a Q&A fielded by Entertainment
Weekly.

That wasn't it, though. Near the end of the an hour-long panel,
Fox debuted the world premiere of the film's first trailer. We're
not talking about the 31-second teaser Fox released earlier
Thursday for the film. We're talking about a full teaser trailer
for next July's film. If you're a fan of the first two films in
the series, what we saw Thursday evening looked good.

Here's what we learned about the sequel

Reeves said the sequel will take place two years after 2014's
"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" in the midst of a giant war
raging between mankind and apes.

Caesar (Andy Serkis) is still haunted after killing fellow
ape Koba, the antagonist of the last film. However, the apes
are suffering heavy casualties and Caesar is devastated. He's out
for revenge, and Reeves said this leads Caesar to go on a quest
to kill the colonel, played by Woody Harrelson.

Reeves said Caesar and Harrelson's character will have a struggle
for about two-thirds of the film.

Unlike previous films that have been told from the human's point
of view or split between the humans and apes, this story will be
told exclusively through Caesar's point of view.

Reeves said in the filmmaking process the crew watched a bunch of
other movies for inspiration, including "Ben-Hur," "Apocalypse
Now," "The Ten Commandments," "Platoon," and "The Thin Red Line."

Behind-the-scenes footage

The first batch of footage seen included a look at the film's
visual effects and motion capture. We were shown how the actor's
performances in mo-cap are translated into photorealistic ape
models and saw some on-set footage.

Andy Serkis was seen walking around in a grey motion-capture suit
wielding a gun and sometimes with stilts to make his arms
mimic those of an ape.

There were shots seen of actors riding horses on both the beach
and on a snowy terrain.

What happened in the seven minutes of footage from
the film

Director Matt Reeves,
producer Dylan Clark, and Andy Serkis at the NYCC panel for "War
for the Planet of the Apes."Fox/@ApesMovie

Fans and press were treated to an unfinished first-look scene
from the film featuring Caesar and a few of his fellow
apes.

Director Matt Reeves seemed a bit nervous to show off the work in
process, warning that the footage would look crude and
cartoonish.

"This is like stripping down naked in front of you," Reeves
admitted. "Seven minutes of movie stripped down that's being
edited right now."

"Keep in mind, what you're seeing is raw," he also said. "It's
Quicktime out of an Avid."

What we saw was a fantastic peek at the filmmaking process. The
scene included a mix of motion capture suits, some ape
renderings, and finished apes.

Caesar and a few other apes run into a human at his home in the
woods. The man is about to surrender, dropping a pile of
firewood, but he's mercilessly shot. We see that it's Caesar who
shoots and kills the man. That's surprising. If you've been
following the series, Caesar has been the closest ape to humans
and has been sympathetic to them in the past. That's changed.
He's now colder and hardened against mankind since the war.

This is from "Dawn of the Planet of the
Apes."20th Century
Fox

The apes then raid the man's house along with Maurice (Karin
Konoval), the kind orangutan from "Dawn of the Planet of the
Apes." The group come across a young girl who appears to have a
speech problem. When the group gets ready to head out, the girl
follows them outside to see, presumably her father, shot dead.
Maurice asks Caesar if she can travel with them. He says no. She
tells him that she won't leave her behind. We then see the group
riding off along a beach on horseback, the little girl tucked
behind the orangutan as Caesar gives her a wary look of
disapproval.

What was especially incredible to watch was Serkis' raw
emotions and facial expressions behind the militant ape.

When the clip was finished it received a warm reception from the
crowd. Reeves was asked what the experience of watching the
unfinished footage with a crowd was like.

"That was awful," Reeves said at first before deciding, "it was
incredible."

Reeves said that they had been wanting to show footage like that
for some time to a crowd. He emphasized that it's rare to see
acting like that in that process. He then told the New York crowd
that they originally wanted to show us a different scene, but
they couldn't because it included a huge spoiler. Bummer.

When discussing the scene, Reeves described Caesar as a
"badass Clint Eastwood Caesar." That's a pretty accurate
assessment.

The first trailer for "War for the Planet of the
Apes"

At the end of the panel, we were treated to a trailer debut for
next summer's movie. We see some soldiers going after apes before
they're taken out. We see Caesar come on screen in what appears
to be the ape home from the last film.

We hear a soldier being asked over a radio, "Did you get the
target? Is he dead?" The audience presumes Caesar is the
aformentioned target, so, nope, they failed.

We get a few shots of Woody Harrelson's colonel and hear his
voice say, "All of human history has led to this moment. If we
lose, it will be a planet of apes." The trailer culminates with
Caesar kneeling at the colonel's feet, a gun pointed to his
head.

"War for the Planet of the Apes" will be in theaters next July.
The first full trailer for the film hasn't made its way online,
and you shouldn't expect it to leak. There were a lot of
suits on hand making sure phones were tucked away and turned off.
Also, the majority of the people in the room were press. When the
trailer comes online (hopefully soon!), we'll include it here.